Ahaz, your judgment has a fatal flaw.
Is it not so with judges first and last—
You break the law to specialize the law?—
This is the devil that from you I cast.
THE SINGLE STANDARD
(St. John, Chapter VIII.)
It was known through Judea, we knew it:—
That Joseph beguiled
By mercy for Mary espoused,
And already with child,
Before they had come to each other,
Would put her away
In secret, before the Sanhedrin
Could summon, array,
The witnesses, judge her and make her
A noise and a shame—
We knew this, and what would he do
If the case were the same
As his father believed was the case
With his mother? would he,
A prophet, fulfill all the law,
Or let her go free?—
This Sarah, you know, that I caught,
Was a witness and saw.
Now what would he do, shade away,
Or judge by the law?
For Moses decreed if a woman
Who is married shall lie
With a man, whether wedded or not,
The woman shall die
With the man in a volley of stones;
And Moses decreed
If a virgin already betrothed
Shall lust in the deed